Creatives for hire: 11 Chicago web design and development agencies making your site worth visiting

by Sam Daley

May 24, 2019

Stunning visuals. Informative, yet gripping, content. Lightning fast load speeds. One needs these things to create a successful website. It's all about creating unique experiences that draw people in and ultimately turns them into customers. At the heart of making this all happen are talented web development and design specialists — and Chicago is loaded with them.

Check out these 11 web development and design agencies in the Chicago area that work on everything from brand color schemes to backend implementation.

What they do: The full service team at Dom & Tom develop and design websites for businesses of every size, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. The agency implements various UI and UX strategies to create individualized design experiences, while deploying the latest in web engineering and devops tools to build fast, reliable sites. Following a launch, the team at Dom & Tom continues to maintain the website and will introduce new products when necessary.

Who they’ve worked with: Samsung, GE, Thinkful, Seventeen Magazine, the University of Oklahoma and Priceline

What they do: Hashrocket is a full-service development and design agency for both websites and mobile apps. The team at Hashrocket is well-versed in Ruby on Rails, Elixir and React languages and has the ability to build everything from complicated backend tools to simpler, customer-facing interfaces that drive sales.

Who they’ve worked with: Adobe, Ericsson, Aetna and Vanderbilt University

What they do: Cre8 specializes in web and UX design. The agency builds design around a client's current and future goals, with a particular focus on mobile-friendly responsive sites. Additionally, the company’s rapid design prototyping process helps businesses stay in the loop, avoiding any surprises or miscommunications before intensive programming begins.

Who they’ve worked with: Itiviti, Nadex, the Urban Development Fund, Bento for Business and Bikety

What they do: Orbit Media Studios designs and develops websites with conversions in mind. The company focuses heavily on creating unique visual experiences and running sites on the latest versions of content management systems, all with the goal of turning visitors into sales leads. In addition to its robust UX and development sectors, Orbit Media Studios also provides strategy and SEO help.

What they do: BuildThis creates user-centric web designs and custom applications. After the discovery phase and an outlining of specific business goals, the team creates a web style guide that dictates the aesthetic of the site before development begins. For those who need a site quickly, BuildThis recently added a new feature called “BuildThis Today,” where they build a whole website within a single business day.

Who they’ve worked with: The Perfit, Sunkist, Fortress All Weather Gear, and Organic Trail Chips

What they do: Millennial Web Development handles everything from responsive UX to information architecture and routine website maintenance. The design and development agency utilizes flat designs that are meant to be minimalistic and exciting. The simple design helps viewers easily navigate the site, learn about products and avoid any of the confusion or frustrations that can sometimes come with overproduced sites.

What they do: Angle180 designs and markets websites for the industrial manufacturing and construction industries. With a narrower industry focus the agency can hone design and development in a way that is specifically targeted to attract quality leads in those verticals. In addition to their web development services, Angle180 also provides paid search and SEO tools that help companies reach a wider audience.

Who they’ve worked with: Landlock, Valley, Green World Technology Group, Velsicol and New Concept 180

What they do: 1Brand offers a wide range of services, including web development/design, WordPress development, SEO, copywriting and graphic design. The agency's designers and developers work in tandem to create responsive web experiences across all devices, and UX designs based on the visions of each individual business.

Who they’ve worked with: The Chicago Bears, NASCAR, Special Olympics, DirecTV and Hard Rock Cafe

What they do: Solid Digital is a full-service agency specializing in digital consulting, marketing and, of course, web design and development. Guided by UI/UX best practices, analytics and a company’s future goals, the team specializes in everything from third-party API integration to responsive mobile design and open source development.

Who they’ve worked with: Redbox, Best Buy, Priceline and The University of Chicago

What they do: Click5 Interactive designs, builds and markets web products across a variety of industries. The company performs services like branding, UI/UX design, WordPress and web app development. Click5 uses Agile methodologies and rapid prototyping to keep the agency-client relationship in constant communication throughout the development process.

Who they’ve worked with: Volvo, Transactency, The Minte, Mack Trucks and Landmark Companies

What they do: Blueshoon is a web design, development and management agency working with businesses of all sizes. In each case, the team meets with client leaders to discuss overall future goals and then create a strategy that involves everything from site auditing to UI display and backend coding.

Who they’ve worked with: Giordano’s, Playboy, Pepsi, the BBC and REDBUBBLE